Ironically, the good fortune for full-size trucks does not bode well for Ram's reentry into the midsize segment anytime soon. The combined regulatory requirements of safety, fuel economy, and the expected attributes of payload and towing capacity make it challenging to bring a midsize entry to market that's meaningfully more affordable than the approximately $23,000 starting point for full-size pickups.

But that's not to say Ram has given up innovating in the truck, van, and light commercial vehicle segment. The Fiat Ducato-based ProMaster is just a few months away, and a compact Ford Transit Connect competitor based on the Fiat Doblo is due a few months after that, believed to carry the ProMaster City badge. Also on the near-term horizon is a turbodiesel Ram 1500, which promises to top the already-impressive 25-mpg highway figure of the Pentastar V-6, with more than 400 lb-ft of torque.